Big News from Redbubble and TeePublic

Today is a big day in the history of independent art.

On October 24th, 2018, we announced Redbubble’s acquisition of TeePublic. Now, you might be wondering, what does that really mean for you? All it means is that TeePublic used to be owned by its founders and is now owned by Redbubble.

While this new ownership structure comes with distinct advantages (more on that below) it fundamentally doesn’t change anything about TeePublic and how we will continue to serve you.

Both websites are going to continue serving similar segments of the market in their own unique ways. TeePublic will continue to operate independently with its own staff, headquarters, and platform. In other words, TeePublic stays TeePublic and Redbubble stays Redbubble. Adam Schwartz, who is TeePublic’s current COO, will continue to lead TeePublic as a part of the Redbubble family.

With that said, we feel this union will have an overwhelmingly positive impact on our industry. When the prospect of joining forces first arose, we sat down and sought to answer two fundamental questions:

1. Do we believe this partnership will accelerate the growth of both companies in a way that enables us to further fulfill our shared mission; To empower independent artists to turn their passion into profit and bring more creativity into the world.
2. Can we partner in a way that allows both organizations to retain our unique cultures and stay true to our values.

The answer to both those questions is emphatically yes. Ultimately, it’s clear to both companies we want the same thing; to empower your creativity and help you earn money along the way.

Here are just a few ways we believe a single ownership group will allow us to serve the artist community more effectively:

• Artist Experience
  • For those of you who sell on both platforms, we recognize the large time commitment it takes to upload the same files on multiple sites. Longer term we are excited to streamline your experience so selling on both platforms is super simple, enabling artists to maximize opportunities to sell and get exposure to larger audiences. Independent artists have earned over $80 million through the two marketplaces since their inception.

• Art Theft
  • You pour creativity and passion into your designs and when they are stolen and profited on by others, a true injustice has occurred. But with our powers combined….We can share data and define industry wide who are original artists and who are thieves, essentially creating our own art crime database. This partnership will ensure Redbubble and TeePublic will become the safest place to host and sell your art on the Internet.

• Rightsholder Relations
  • You all know the print-on-demand art space has experienced legal issues around IP. We want to build stronger relationships with rights holders to give them more control over their IP, and create opportunities for passionate fan artists to connect with the brands that they love. We ultimately want to work with rights holders in ways that encourage creativity and believe we are better positioned to do this work together.

Both TeePublic and Redbubble rely on your contributions to our platforms – both platforms rely on the trust and faith of the world’s largest community of independent artists. That trust is something we must continue to earn. Together, we intend to keep on earning it every day through our interactions with you. We hope that you will see this partnership as one that strengthens the collective voice of independent artists around the globe and are as excited as we are to use that voice to shape the future of independent art so as to bring more creativity into the world.

Many cheers,

Barry and Adam